United States

The military provocations between NATO and Russia reached a new post-cold war high yesterday when Poland became the host to the largest joint NATO war game in eastern Europe since the end of the cold war. The purpose of the massive drill, according to the Guardian, is for NATO "partner countries to mount a display of strength as a response to concerns about Russia’s assertiveness and actions." The 10-day military exercise dubbed Anaconda-2016, involves 31,000 troops and thousands of vehicles from 24 countries.

Submitted by Michael Shedlock via MishTalk.com,

Protectionists are on the cusp of a “Pyrrhic victory” over China.

No one will like the results when it happens.

A huge global trade war is on the horizon, regardless of whether Hillary or Trump wins the election.

The die is cast: US Steel Given Green Light to Seek China Import Ban.

A reader sends in this Sarah Carr article from Slate, talking about how schools are changing and will have to change to accommodate the fact that whites will be a minority in the US. It’s already the case that whites are a minority among the school-age population, she says. Excerpts:

Gold prices surged nearly 3% after the very poor jobs number on Friday, have maintained those gains and appear to be consolidating as concerns about the U.S. economy and BREXIT deepen.

Gold Prices in USD – 1 Week (GoldCore)

Gold was marginally higher yesterday and 2.7% higher last week breaking a run of recent weekly losses and a 5% loss in May.

For the second quarter in a row, US worker productivity fell in Q1 (down 0.6% QoQ). Outside of 2015's weather-driven debacle, this is the weakest two quarter tumble in productivity since Q4 2012. Unit labor costs rose 4.5% QoQ in Q1 (revised up from 4.1%) as output actually fell 0.6% (implying a 3.9% rise in compensation). This is the 3rd quarterly drop in output in a row.

Must be the weather...